A group of motherboard enthusiasts working for GIGABYTE, sharing their insider knowledge and general ramblings of the motherboard business, the tech industry, latest technologies and trends, and other random odds and ends.

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

The price of DDR3 memory has continued to fall, to the extent that even the most scrooge-like PC builder would be tempted to deck out his PC with a bit extra. Right now on NewEgg a 4GB Kingston HyperX Blu DDR3 1333 module can be yours for a mere $19.99. Fancy something a little more adventurous? How’s about a 4GB CORSIAR Vengence DDR3 1600 for just $25? Or perhaps you’re man of real taste and distinction; try a pair of Muskin Enhanced Blackline modules rated at speeds of up to 2333MHz, for only $99.99! Has the world gone potty?

Well, no. But as far as consumers are concerned, it’s really good time to invest in some extra memory for your PC, as Peter Scott, writing for Fudzilla earlier this week explains:

“Here’s some food for thought. A year ago a single Kingston ValueRAM 4GB SO-DIMM module cost €54 and two years ago it retailed for a saucy €243. Now it sells for just €14 and change.” – Peter Scott, Fudzilla

But while it is tempting to add some more RAM your PC, there is inevitably also a limit to how much your PC actually needs. I’ve found that opinions vary greatly. Many Windows 7 users feel that memory bottlenecks cease to be problem at around 4GB. Most self respecting power users however are not content without 16GB. One fly in the ointment of course, is software. 32-bit operating systems are inherently limited to an absolute max of 4GB memory (you may only see 3.25GB), so it’s only those of us that are enjoying the 64-bit revolution that can explore the realms 4GB of RAM and beyond. Then of course it comes down to what you do with your PC. Applications that manipulate large cumbersome data sets will need a far larger memory footprint, while HD video and photo editing suites can indeed hog a whole lot of memory.

To help us get to a clearer picture of RAM usage, we’ve decided to ask the experts, which of course is you - the GIGABTE fans who read our blog and follow us on Facebook each day.

Please go to our fan page and tell us what you use in your rig. And don’t forget to give us a ‘like’ if you haven’t already.

Monday, November 28, 2011

TeamAU boys (deanzo, dinos22, sniperoz & deanzo) just finished the latest GIGABYTE Extreme OC workshop in Brisbane. Eva2000 also made a brief appearance on the first day. It was a really fun event in which enthusiasts from Brisbane were passed over control of some seriously souped up rigs running 7Ghz+ with AMD Bulldozer and GIGABYTE 990FXA-UD7 motherboards.

Kudos to AMD, GIGABYTE, CORSAIR, UMART and Atomic mag for backing the event.

Having previously unboxed our G1.Assassin 2 and X79-UD5 motherboards, we knew it would only be a mater of time before Linus would treat us all to a journey around our high-end X79-UD7 board. And it would seem that he’s impressed with what he seeing too, opting to go with the UD7 for his new upgraded extreme rig.

GIGABYTE was among a group of hardware vendors in attendance at Atomic Con 2011 at Monash University, Melbourne last weekend. Atomic’s David Hollingworth took his camera crew over to our GIGABYTE Extreme Overclocking stand where he found, perhaps not surprisingly, some fairly extreme overclocking going on. Check out the video below:

Friday, November 25, 2011

Expert motherboard review Mr Ramirez over at motherboards.org has published his in-depth review of our latest Overclocking motherboard, the GIGABYTE X79-UD7 board, and it looks like there’s plenty to shout about. Picking up the ‘Editors Choice’ award, the X79-UD7 put on quite show in the benchmarking dept, where it pushed past against some pretty stiff competition:

“Let me start by saying that with the X79 boards that we’ve tested so far this board has given us the highest scores in most of our benchmarks. In some of our tests the difference was pretty apparent. In particular we got nearly a 300 point difference in 3D Mark 11 and an increase of .63 in Cinebench. This board has shown that it was made to be pushed and it’s no doubt that this is exactly what Gigabyte was going for.”

In conclusion Mr Ramirez gives the X79-UD7 his full endorsement, which I am happy to reproduce here:

“…what Gigabyte has done is given every feature you can think of to really put this board in the stratosphere. With the addition of the WiFi and Blue Tooth card alone this is an amazing board but with everything else Gigabyte has thrown into it this board is just head and shoulders above the others that we’ve tested so far. In my opinion this board is everything that the enthusiast market has been waiting for.

If you’ve been waiting to get in on the X79 this is the best choice that we’ve seen so far and you won’t be disappointed. With all of the incredible features and amazing performance this board is definitely an Editor’s Choice here at Motherboards.Org.”

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

One of my favorite ways to enjoy a new product, vicariously and from a distance, is to watched it being unboxed. It can be a thoroughly sensual journey through the many layers of a product’s personality. Or at least sometimes it is. Indeed when it comes to the dark arts of product unboxing, our buddy Linus bring his own utterly unique approach to the sport, ploughing through the ceremony as if life itself would grind to a halt if he stopped to draw breath.

Check out this new unboxing video from Linus where he tackles our X79-UD5. It’s a roller coaster ride you’ll hope never ends!

Friday, November 18, 2011

Following up on his preview article last week, veteran reviewer Shane Baxtor at TweakTown has now published his full and detailed review of our new gaming behemoth, the GIGABYTE G1.Assassin 2. In case you’ve been outdoors occupying financial districts for the last month or so, let me fill you in on what you’ve missed. The GIGABYTE G1.Assassin 2 is based on the new Intel X79 chipset, supporting Intel’s new i7 Core (aka Sandy Bridge-E) processors and packs a dedicated Creative Sound chip and Killer Networking from Qualcomm/Atheros. He’s a sample of what Shane had to say on the subject:

“The G1.Assassin 2 is like other G1 boards; performance is strong and the feature set is amazing. For so many people that's exactly what you want from a motherboard. This is going to be a popular board from GIGABYTE for a good reason.

If you're looking for a board that focuses on those features that gamers love like the fantastic onboard networking, excellent onboard audio and one button overclock, this is a really attractive option. Throw in other extras like 802.11n Wireless and Bluetooth 4.0 support and you've just got a board that stands out for all the right reasons.”

Recognize those hands? Yup…it’s our buddy Elric from motherboards.org. who is back this time all over our newly launched X79-UD3 board. If you want close up peek at the packaging, bundled accessories and of course the board itself, check out the video below:

It’s also worth noting that Sin managed to crank his Intel 3960X up to a respectable 4.7GHz without breaking sweat. Check the image below:

But as well as serious overclocking, Sin0822 also took time to consider the overall appeal of the X79-UD7:

“This board is definitely a benching board, built for extreme overclocking, with a very nice feature set. Sure it might live on a test bench, but it can also live out its days inside a nice decked out case (an expensive ATX-XL case at that), and be a fully functioning member of the community. While it has that benching board feel of the X58A-OC it also feels like a 24/7 board like the Z68X-UD7. You might say its a mix of the two but with some extra spice thrown in. This really is how GIGABYTE's LGA1155 UD7 should have been, and I am just glad that GIGABYTE is eventually making the change. One thing that might throw a lot of new users off is the immense amount of PWM options in the BIOS, but there is hope as the 3D BIOS does offer much easier and managed control over the PWM settings. This board is how a proper high-end platform should be done, from its performance to its build, it really is one heck of a board. Its also really fun to work with as well.”

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Our buddy Cameron from TweakTown was fortunate to see our new X79 motherboards close up and personal late week. Of course two of the most eye-catching features that we were showing off were our new 3D BIOS and 3D Power technologies.

If you’ve not already heard, GIGABYTE 3D BIOS is a new and exciting way to interact with your BIOS based on our new UEFI DualBIOS technology– basically offering a much more simplified and graphical user interface compared traditional BIOS environments. Check out Cameron’s video below, and see our GIGABYTE 3D BIOS for yourself:

GIGABYTE 3D Power is a Windows based app which allows you to tweak our new Digital Power Engine to your heart’s content. This means that you can modify key settings regarding the power delivery to the CPU and memory, tweaking the three key dimensions of power delivery; Voltage, Phase and Frequency. Here’s Cameron’s 3D Power walkthrough:

Monday, November 14, 2011

The day we’ve all been waiting for is finally here, the official X79 series launch. Yes, Today we are launching four X79 motherboards, each with their very own specific flavor. While each of these new boards features a new 3-way digital power engine that uses digital controllers for the processor and dual memory arrays, and pack new GIGABYTE features like 3D Power and the all new 3D BIOS, each board also has specific features that make them perfect for specific kinds of users. Let me me take you on a quick tour of Sandy Bridge-E, GIGABYTE style:

Arguably the pinnacle of our X79 series is aimed at gamers; hardcore gamers that want the absolute best and most immersive 3D gaming experience possible. Welcome to the GIGABYTE G1.Assassin 2 motherboard, the newest addition to our G1-Killer motherboard range. As with all our G1-Killer boards, the G1.Assassin 2 is bedecked with a Creative Digital Audio processor (20K2) which packs X-Fi Xtreme Fideility® and EAX® Advanced HD Audio 5.0 technologies. In terms of networking the G1.Assassin 2 also features the Killer™ E2100 Game Networking Platform for the most optimal online responsiveness and comprehensive control over your network. Also, I should mention 3-way graphics and a unique Killer heat-pipe design!

In terms of squeezing every last ounce of performance out of Intel’s new enthusiast i7 Core processors, we have the GIGABYTE X79-UD7 motherboard which is designed with the help of our in-house Overclocking guru, HiCookie. The X79-UD7 boasts a 24-phase VRM, support for 4-way SLI and CrossfireX plus a bunch of unique features that will help overclockers set new performance records. These features include onboard and back panel buttons that make BIOS adjustment fast and easy, specially chosen POScaps that make board insulation much more effective, DualBIOS chips with a nifty BIOS switcher button, plus additional graphics power via the SATA PSU rails. Truth be told, this is THE Overclocking board for X79 users.

Next comes our GIGABYTE X79-UD5 motherboard which is designed for professional media creation and workstation builds. With a maxed out DDR3 array that allows enthusiasts to indulge in eight memory modules, the X79-UD5 is built for performance-oriented PCs that deal with memory and CPU intensive workloads. We’ve also added a BIOS switcher and OC buttons on the back panel for a quickly boosting performance even further, should you need it.

Finally we have the GIGABYTE X79-UD3 board which brings outstanding value to the X79 platform. With support for 4-way graphics and comprehensive connectivity and I/O options, the X79-UD3 brings Sandy Bridge-E to a mainstream audience that craves extreme performance.

Friday, November 11, 2011

As with every new launch, there is always a lot of excitement the closer you get to the actual day. Even for those of us in the industry who have seen more launches than we might care to admit, a new launch can be a bit like Christmas in terms of anticipation. Especially for high end platforms such as X79, as these really push the boundaries in terms of performance and features. Well today, I finally got my own G1.Assassin 2 board, and I can say without a doubt I am one proud Killer-geek. Man, I love my job!

Hey guys, just thought to let you all know that NewEgg is running yet another deal, this time with ten cool combos that mean you can save some pretty serious mula for when building your next rig. Of course the two deals that caught our eye included our GIGABYTE GA-Z68M-D2H board. Check out the link here.

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Shane Baxtor from TweakTown certainly seems to have his hands full at this moment. As with any hardcore reviewer prior to a major CPU platform launch, right now Shane should be a busy boy. Nevertheless, he’s taken some time out to take some provocative photos of our GIGABYTE G1.Assassin 2 motherboard and it’s packaging. Just could not help yourself could you Shane….

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

You’ll be glad to hear that we’ve just got the green light to go ahead and give you a peek behind the curtain at the packaging for our upcoming X79 series motherboards.

Above you can see the forthcoming uber-performance X79-UD7 motherboard and its sleek packaging - a board which is heavily geared towards breaking world Overclocking records. Below that there’s our X79-UD5, which is aimed at extreme content and media creation rigs! But of course our X79 series is all about offering motherboard designs for specific user segments, so the range will also include our G1.Assassin 2 motherboard for hardcore gamers, rounded out by our more affordable X79-UD3. You can find packaging images of the full X79 series on our Facebook page here.

We’ve also revealed the logos for our exciting 3D Power and 3D BIOS technologies, both of which will debut on this platform.

Finally, here’s diagram we put together which reveals a little more about the technology that drives our new 3D Power.

Sure are exciting times ahead with all four of these boards being launching fairly soon. I hope we didn't get your saliva glands too overworked!

Friday, November 4, 2011

Digitimes has an interesting article this morning titled Worldwide PC processor revenues in 3Q11 rise over 12% sequentially, says IDC. They mention how PC processor ASPs (Average Selling Prices) have increased 8 quarters in a row due to better integrated graphics that customers are willing to pay more for. This concept is not new to GIGABYTE because we have seen our product mix go from 80% entry-level motherboards in 2005 to where we are currently at around a mere 40-45% entry-level models. We think this trend towards higher-end desktop PCs is largely due to 2 reasons:

1. Smart phones, tablet PCs, netbooks and low cost notebook PCs are aggressively competing in the entry level segment where consumers need connectivity and basic computing functionality only. The traditional desktop PC with a 22 inch monitor, 2/4 core CPU, 8GB of memory and a 1TB+ hard drive (these are pretty much the entry level desktop PC specs in Taiwan now) has moved up the scale and is by comparison a powerful computer. In other words, people who buy a desktop PC are doing so because they need the performance or features of a desktop, not just because they want to send emails.

2. More people know how to DIY their PCs today because kids learn about computers at an earlier age. This growing pool of PC DIY enthusiasts recognize better performance, features and quality in the products that they choose to buy or recommend, so essentially the PC DIY opinion leaders are willing to pay a little more when they recognize a better product.

And so the PC has moved away from being the one-size-fits-all device that made it so successful, to one of many connected task-specific devices in our personal and professional networks that fills an essential role in the creation, storage and sharing of digital content.

Following on Stew’s Product Comparison article, I poked around the GIGABYTE motherboard website today to experience it as an end user. As one of the oldest existing motherboard makers, you can imagine that we have built up an impressive arsenal of software to help PC DIY enthusiasts and system integrators get the most out of their GIGABYTE products, including my personal favorite (because I use it all the time), @BIOS. Anyone who uses the bundled DVD to install their drivers will know of the extensive list of free software that I’m referring to, but there is actually a whole lot more available from our website than just what we bundle on the DVD today.

Remarkably, this list is just two clicks away from the motherboard home page as can be seen in the slides below:

Step 1: select ‘Downloads’ in the left hand margin of the GIGABYTE motherboard home page

Step 2: select ‘Utility List’ in the left hand margin of the ‘Downloads’ web page

Note: Not many people know that the first version of GIGABYTE @BIOS was launched on the 14th of July, 2000 as the first ever Windows-based BIOS upgrade utility. As such it is the oldest GIGABYTE software utility that is still in use today – naturally it is continually upgraded and improved to keep it relevant and functional. Funny thing is that during a recent media tour a journalist asked me when GIGABYTE would be launching a Windows-based BIOS updating tool… Let’s hope this blog article helps prevent that from happening again.

Thursday, November 3, 2011

It’s not always easy for DIY builders, especially novice and entry-level builders, to decide which motherboard to choose when building a PC. After all there are a lot of options on out there, and dozens of models too. As a tier one motherboard vendor, GIGABYTE caters for a wide range of customers including elite gamers, champion overclockers, power users, boutique system integrators….not to forget regular Joes who want to build am inexpensive but reliable PC for their buddy or parents.

What is more, we do it on a global scale, offering a broad variety of motherboard models that are also designed for specific regions of world (btw, taste in motherboards varies by region just as it does with food, music or anything else!). In short, we probably offer more motherboard models than any other vendor, and over the years this has been a key factor in becoming one of the most successful and respected motherboard manufacturers in the world.

Upon visiting our motherboard product webpage, it’s easy to understand that the uninitiated could suddenly feel overwhelmed by the broad choice of motherboards on display there. For example our Z68 motherboard series now numbers no less than 22 models. If you’re a novice user building your first PC, finding the right Z68 board for you may seem a little daunting.

It’s for this reason that GIGABYTE has really tried hard to structure our website in way that makes it easy to differentiate between models, so that novice and enthusiast alike can find which board is right for them. To that end, we’ve created the online ‘Product Comparison’ tool, which makes it as simple as possible to compare several boards at the same time so that you can easily weigh up the pros and cons of each individual model.

Note: This link is also present in the top right corner of every motherboard model product page.

When you arrive at the ‘Product Comparison’ page you’ll be asked to make a few simple choices regarding what kind of system you want to build. Firstly you’re asked to identify which chipset you board will use. For DIY PC builders, the chipset is the one component on the board that really identifies it in terms of technology. Some newer chipsets are more expensive and can be found on more expensive boards, with extra features that many entry-level users will not need, while other chipsets are perhaps a little older or less feature packed, but make the ideal choice for a budget system. Also, there’s the issue of Intel vs AMD chipset.

If you’re not sure how to answer these questions, we recommend a bit of research (Google is good place to start!). Alternatively, if you know a thing or two about desktop PCs and the CPUs, memory and graphics they use, you can outline a more complete spec on the right-hand part of the screen. More knowledgeable users will find this really helpful in quickly identifying the board they want.

Once you made these choices you’ll be presented with a list motherboards that fit with your selection parameters.

You’ll no doubt be offered several motherboard models (did I mention we have a quite a few?). By ticking the boxes on the left, you can then select which models that you’d like to compare in detail by clicking on the ‘Compare Now!’ link in the top right corner.

You'll then be able to see a detailed side-by-side comparison of the boards you selected with specifications like CPU support, Memory support, the number of SATA 2.0, SATA 3.0 ports, USB 2.0 and 3.0 ports, video output options and a whole lot more. This information should go along way to helping you decide which motherboard to go for. The other cool things about this page is that. using the links in the top left, you can also choose to the print the comparison chart or mail it to buddy to ask his advice.Alas, when choosing a motherboard for your next rig, there will inevitably be two other major factors to consider; availability and price.

As I mentioned earlier, we develop and design many of our boards for specific regions, so not all boards will be available in all regions of the world. You must also bear in mind that not all retailers will stock every model. We’ve designed and manufacturers 22 unique Z68 motherboard models, but most retailers may only stock as many as eight to ten models, based on their specific customer demands.

Finally, when it comes to the issue of price, we have boards to suit all budgets. A good idea is check with your retailer to check what is available at your budget level. Online retailers like NewEgg in the US or Scan in UK, are really useful to help you get a handle what’s being sold at what price range. You may well find a better deal at your PC component retailer, indeed I typically make purchases at the local PC market in downtown Taipei. But online searches can be really useful as guide on price. You can then go back to our ‘Product Comparison’ page and dig deeper into the specs and features.

Arguably, after the CPU, the motherboard is the most important component in your PC . I think it’s fairly good advice to take your time, do some research and really put some thought into what motherboard you use. I hope our online ‘Product Comparison’ tool helps you make a well-informed decision.